Dat`s Entertainment

Sound-testing The Controversial Digital Tape Player

March 27, 1988|By Howard Reich.

The battle over digital audiotape-the latest major development in recording technology-is about to break into open warfare.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), alarmed at possible piracy and loss of income due to home taping, recently announced that it will sue any manufacturer distributing DAT machines in the United States (the machines have been available in Japan for a year and Europe for about six months).

Certain electronics manufacturers, however, such as California-based Marantz Co., say they plan to go ahead with U.S. distribution, probably within several months.

Meanwhile, legislative attempts to resolve the impasse have collapsed amid much debate.

Why all the furor? Why has DAT released such passions?

To find out, The Arts recently conducted an experiment in sound. The goal was to assess the quality and nature of DAT sonics, and to see how it measures up to the claims of its proponents and its critics.

The results were a revelation, but before we detail them, a few words about how the experiment was conducted:

We employed a listening environment similar to what the average listener might have in his or her living room. The setting was a conference room at Dynascan Corp., the Chicago-based parent company of Marantz, which hopes to be the first on the U.S. market with DAT machines.

The sound equipment gathered for the occasion included a Japanese-made Kenwood DAT player (not available to the public in the U.S.); Maxell blank DAT tape (also not commercially available here); Magnavox compact disc player

With this equipment, Dynascan research technician Daniel A. Cloud performed several tests comparing the sound qualities of DAT, cassette tape, compact discs and reel-to-reel tape.

In essence, the DAT machine operates similarly to a VCR. The miniature cassette (about 1 1/8 by 2 7/8 inches) is slipped into the front of the machine exactly as a videotape goes into a VCR. The DAT also can be indexed, programmed and scanned as if it were a CD.

Here, then, are the results, as this listener heard them:

Vintage orchestral recording on CD, DAT and cassette. To determine how the various technologies cope with a famous analogue recording, we played RCA`s CD reissue of Ravel`s ``Bolero`` in an account by Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony. We recorded the CD onto blank DAT, then compared the CD, the DAT dupe and the commercially available cassette of Monteux`s ``Bolero.``

The version recorded from CD onto blank DAT represented nearly a mirror of the compact disc, with its clean sound, vibrance of tone and a faint hiss, presumably from the original analogue source.

The commercially available cassette, by contrast, had an unmistakable hiss (as cassette tape always does), its sounds not as precise as DAT or CD. Further, the commercially available cassette was nearly a half-step off the correct pitch of the CD and DAT, presumably because of imperfections in the commercial cassette.

Digital solo recording on CD, DAT and cassette. This time we listened to

``Opening,`` the solo keyboard cut from Philip Glass` new ``Glassworks`` CD on CBS.

Again, the transfer from CD onto blank DAT was nearly identical to the CD, if a shade more distant.

Again, the commercially available cassette represented a dim image of the homemade DAT recording. The hiss cast a thin film around the sound; and the pitch of the CD and DAT was off on the commercial cassette.

Digital orchestral recording on CD, DAT and cassette. Here we used an excellent new recording of Rachmaninoff`s Second Piano Concerto on London, with Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony, Jorge Bolet as pianist. In this instance, DAT performed its best so far, impeccably reproducing the rumbling bass notes and the wide dynamic range of the CD. As before, the commercially available cassette sounded distant and imprecise; the pitch, too, was off.

To best simulate the technological options extant, we recorded the Rachmaninoff CD onto blank versions of the various formats.

DAT offered the utmost clarity and presence. Reel-to-reel came in a close second, with crisp reproduction and minimal hiss. Cassette tape offered the same drawbacks as before.

Audition of commercial DAT recording. Though DAT recordings are not widely available in the U. S., Dynascan`s technician Cloud played a digital audio tape of the Prelude from Marc-Antoine Charpentier`s Te Deum, performed by the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum/Leipzig on the Capriccio label.

Here, it was impossible to determine if DAT is, as its proponents suggest, superior even to CD in dynamic range and purity of sound. Certainly the sound was as alive and pure as the best CDs. It should be noted here that those who do not enjoy the sound of CDs likely will feel the same about DAT.